Christians often end disputes by saying, “We see things differently!” This statement sounds reasonable, but there is a huge problem. It is looking at things from a human perspective, and it doesn’t talk about how the Bible says about this matter, that is, not pointing out where the logic based on biblical words is wrong, and the logic based on biblical words is objective, which is to look at things from a biblical perspective. Since it is impossible for both correct, at least one person is wrong and it is also possible that both are wrong. We gave an example in which both people were wrong according to the Bible. Because the Bible is inspired by God, this means also looking at things from God’s perspective! This is a serious but unavoidable matter, because unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, sometimes we really have no way to see. But even so, we must still make up our minds and do our best to avoid it. Indeed, people have free will, and a person’s opinion cannot be forced. In other words, such a person will have a subjective view.
At the beginning, I strongly recommended Yu Hongjie’s new discipleship training. At that time, I did not see anything unbiblical in it. Now I have seen a few things that are indeed at odds with the Bible. As far as I know, many churches use this new discipleship guide. For example, one church I know has used this teaching material more than once. Therefore, I decided to point out what I saw to prevent others from making the same mistake as mine. I still continue to recommend new discipleship because it is the best discipleship material I have seen so far in Chinese. It just needs to be modified a little bit according to the words of the Bible.
In theory, it seems that one shouldn’t point out other people’s mistakes especially some Chinese churches emphasize to “…leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”(Romans 12:19) Furthermore, an emphasis is put on the verse, ““Do not judge (G2919) so that you will not be judged.”(Matthew 7:1) This word G2919 appears 131 times, enough times for us to understand the true meaning of this word in the Bible, but it seems that some people have not noticed this verse, “You judge according to the flesh; I (Jesus) am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, My judgment (G2919) is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.”(John 8:15-16) There is nothing wrong in English translation since the same word G2919 is translated the same. But in Chinese Union Version, the same word G2919 is translated differently. Sometimes it means judgment by people as in Matthew 7:1 and sometimes it means judgment by God alike such as in John 8:15-16. Such translation causes problems and misleading, which discourages people saying what should be said.
In reality, whether something should be said or not really depends on the situation. Let’s give an example of this from the Bible. “But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. …But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, …”(Galatians 2:11-14) Let’s hear what Peter said eventually. “…our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”(2 Peter 3:15-16) Peter knew very well what Paul should have talked what said at that time! Because it has to do with the truth told in the Bible. I believe that Yu Hongjie has this magnanimity. Once he realizes something is not in line with the Bible, he can accept it, repent and correct it, because the Bible clearly says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”(1 John 1:9)
In this article, we start from Yu Hongjie’s “Lesson 3 of New Man Discipleship, ‘Becoming a New Creation’ (2): Understanding Sin and the Flesh.” In this lesson, I only see that the definition of sin is not according to the Bible, it is wrong, thus leading to some erroneous conclusions on related issues. Because “All Scripture is inspired by God …”(2 Timothy 3:16), so looking at things from the perspective of the Bible means looking at things from God’s perspective, which also illustrates the importance of not forcing interpretations of the Bible. We also explained why the opposite is not true, and we also saw that we should not draw equal signs casually when reading the Bible. So we first have to look at how the Bible defines “sin.” This is what we mean by looking at everything from God’s perspective. In this way of looking at things, we can prove that “sin” and “disobedience to God” are equivalent. That is, in the Bible, the definition of “sin” is “disobedience to God.” To this end, we also discussed the nature of sin and saw its origins. Second, we see that the consistency of the Bible refers to the consistency of what God tells us through the Bible, not in words. If it is in words, we will find an obvious contradiction. We gave an example where there is an obvious contradiction in words. If we see an obvious contradiction, what we should ask is what God is trying to tell us through such a contradiction. Let us use this example to discuss this point. Third, we discussed seeing things from a human perspective as opposed to seeing things from a divine perspective, and saw the big difference between the two. If we look at things from a human perspective, there will be many different wrong definitions of “sin”. Let us point out why the definition quoted in Lesson 3 is wrong. We especially emphasize not to discount the words of the Bible in our faith. Only such use based on the logic of the words of the Bible will be objective. If we understand that sin in the Bible refers to disobedience to God, we should have no difficulty in telling non-Christians when preaching that everyone in the world has sinned because God said in the law not to lie. Have you ever told a lie and therefore disobeyed God?
1. Definition of sin
We start from Yu Hongjie’s “The Third Lesson of New Man Discipleship, ‘Becoming a New Creation’ (2): Understanding Sin and the Flesh”. On page 55, he talks about the definition of sin quoted some other scriptures in the Bible. However when we know clearly what the Bible defines sin, it will be easy to see why such definitions are wrong.
One of the scriptures he quoted makes it very clear, “Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, …”(Romans 5:12) So sin entered the world because of what Adam did. What Adam did was that he did what God didn’t want him to do, that is, Adam disobeyed God and caused sin to enter the world. Therefore, to this world, “disobedience to God” means “sin” , otherwise if Adam had obeyed God at that time, there would be no sin in the world.
Let’s see what Adam did? “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””(Genesis 2:16-17) So he can eat the fruit from the tree of life. But after the snake tempted Eve, “When the woman (Eve) saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband (Adam) with her, and he ate.”(Genesis 3:6) Obviously, Adam “disobeyed God” and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, “disobedience to God” means “sin” to this world.
Logically, when we say that one statement is the definition of another statement, we must prove that the two statements are equal. That is: if this statement is true, then that statement is true; and vice versa. In short, it is to prove the sufficient and necessary conditions. So we also need to prove the opposite, that is, to this world, “sin” means “disobedience to God.” If this can be proven, then “sin” and “disobedience to God” will be completely equivalent. In other words, the definition of “sin” in the Bible for this world is “disobedience to God.” Now let’s see if we can prove that “sin” means “disobedience to God.” To prove this, we can prove the equivalent statement that “obeying God” means “not a sin.” How can “obeying God” be a “sin”? This is simply right and self-evident! In other words, from a biblical perspective, the definition of “sin” for this world is “disobedience to God.” Although the Bible does not explicitly say this, there is definitely a concept like the one discussed above. This is just like the word Trinity. The Bible never uses this word, but there is definitely a concept in the Bible that God is a Trinity.
Because “All Scripture is inspired by God …”(2 Timothy 3:16), so looking at one thing from the perspective of the Bible is looking at it from God’s perspective. Therefore, looking at it from God’s perspective, to this world, the definition of “sin” is “disobedience to God.” One thing we must mention here is that when Paul wrote the words “All Scripture is inspired by God,” the New Testament had not yet been completed. For example, the book of Revelation did not exist at that time, but Christians, in faith, believe that the entire Bible is inspired by God. If a person truly believes this, he will not discount the words of the Bible. He will see that God tells us through the Bible is consistent. This consistency does not refer to words. If it is words, we will find that there are examples of apparent contradictions. When we see obvious contradictions, we then ask, what is God trying to tell us through such contradictions? In the following section 2, we’ll give such an example.
But one thing to note is that we cannot say that looking at things from the biblical perspective is looking at things from God’s perspective. In short, we cannot say that the reverse narrative is also correct. This is because God is infinite and the words of the Bible are limited. Regarding the fact that the Bible does not record everything, John said very clearly, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”(John 20:30-31)
At this point, you may have noticed that we can only prove that from a biblical perspective, the definition of “sin” for this world is “disobedience to God.” We emphasized the word “this world,” so the Bible says there was a “previous world,” and angels were created in the previous world, but Satan and his followers fell, so Satan is a fallen angel. (See Revelation 12:9) When Adam disobeyed God, sin entered the world. Therefore, sin existed before the world. Adam’s disobedience to God came after the existence of sin. How can we expect people to accept the definition of sin being disobedience to God? Because we cannot use the fact that Adam disobeyed God will happen in the future to say that the definition of sin is disobedience to God! This is a correct thinking. So far, we can only prove that the definition of “sin” for this world is “disobedience to God.” Unless the Bible says that in the previous world, sin also came from disobedience to God, then we can accept that the definition of “sin” is “disobedience to God.”
We know that sin was not created by God, for “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”(James 1:17) Sin is never good, so how can it come from God? It comes from Satan. We can give an example to see that some things are indeed caused by Satan. First of all, everyone knows that lying is a sin, so it was not created by God. So where does lying come from? Let us see what the scripture says, “…Whenever he (the devil) speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”(John 8:44) He is the father of lies, and of course lies come from Satan (the devil). Here, we use Satan as just another name for the devil, because the Book of Revelation makes it very clear, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; …”(Revelation 12:9) Please note that the snake that tempted Eve was the serpent of old.
We can also see from this scripture that lying is not in God, He cannot lie, and He cannot do anything that is not in Him. But He is Almighty, as the scripture says, “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; …”(Genesis 17 : 1) This has also become the best definition of “almighty”, which means that from God’s perspective, He can do everything that exists in Him.
Let’s first look at why the Bible says there was a previous world. We already know that sin was not created by God, but came from Satan in the previous world, so the second step is to say that in the previous world, sin also came because of Satan’s disobedience to God. In other words, the essence of sin is disobedience to God, which has also become the definition of sin.
To prove that the Bible says there was a previous world, let’s look at the original text of Strong’s Concordance. The first sentence of the Bible is “In the beginning God created (H1254) the heavens and the earth.”(Genesis 1:1) Let’s look at the word “created (H1254)”, which refers to creation out of nothing. Let’s look at the next two verses, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”(Genesis 1:2-3) So we talked about things in this world at this time, so the beginning here refers to the very beginning, there was nothing, and then God created time and space and the previous world out of nothing. The question is why these indicate there is a previous world?
To answer this question, let’s look at this verse, “God made (H6213) the two great lights, the greater light (the sun) to govern the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to govern the night; He made the stars also.”(Genesis 1:16) So let’s see what is the difference between these two words H6213 and H1254? To answer this question, let’s first look at where Eve came from. “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper (H6213) suitable for him.””(Genesis 2:18 ) At that time Adam already existed, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”(Genesis 2:21-22) This means that Eve was created from the existing Adam, which is why we can only use H6213. In short, using the word H6213 means that the thing is made from something that already exists.
Let’s look at this verse, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created (H1254), in the day that the LORD God made (H6213) earth and heaven.”(Genesis 2:4) Then we see that this verse uses two different words. In the beginning, it was indeed created out of nothing (H1254), and then in this world, God made (H6213) the heaven and the earth, because the heaven and the earth were created in the previous world, but in the current world, they were only made. The state of the world is, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, …”(Genesis 1:2)
Now let’s look at a scripture related to Satan. We see that this scripture is not talking about the king of Tyre in the human world, but what is happening in the spiritual world. This can be clearly seen from the following scriptures, “Again the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone …On the day that you were created (H1254) They were prepared. “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created (H1254) Until unrighteousness was found in you. “By the abundance of your trade
You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty (H1361); You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you. “By the multitude of your iniquities, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you.”(Ezekiel 28:11-18)
Please note that the word H1254 creation out of nothing is used here. It is also mentioned here that there was a previous world, and angels were created in the previous world. Satan is just a fallen angel, so Revelation 12:9 uses the word the serpent of old.
We have also seen that Satan was driven out because of his numerous sins. God is a merciful and gracious God and will not drive him away just because he makes a mistake. We also see that he is proud of his heart because of his beauty, so we see that Satan fell because of pride. Pride in the heart will never abide, because the Bible says very clearly, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”(Luke 6:45) Satan is even worse. He not only speaks it with his mouth, but also turns the pride in his heart into disobedience to God, and sin arises from this. Therefore, in the previous world, sin is also due to disobedience to God.
Let’s look at another similar verse related to Satan. Here it seems to be talking about the king of Babylon on earth, because the verse says, “that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, …”(Isaiah 14:4) But then comes the spiritual things, ““How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High (H5924).’ “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.”(Isaiah 14:12-15)
When Satan was created, he was indeed the star of the morning, son of the dawn! But because of what just discussed, he was proud of his beauty, and he was so proud that he wanted to be equal to the Most High. I used to think that the Most High (H5945) refers to Jesus Christ, because Satan is a creation, and time can only go forward, and in time, the Lord Jesus became flesh, and there is an order. It was God who sent Jesus, so “But He (Jesus ) answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.””(Matthew 15:24) And Jesus also said, “…if I do not go away, the Helper (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”(John 16:7) Satan knows that no creature can surpass the God who created it, so he only wants to be equal to Christ, so he shows it through his actions and becomes an antichrist, as the scripture says, “…every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, …”(1 John 4:3) So if the Most High does not refer to Christ, who does it refer to?
Here I used the words in the Bible to support my viewpoint and it seems to make sense! But I finally realized that this was a subjective view. So what is objective seeing? It is based on the logic of biblical words. We have to look at what the Bible says. According to the Bible, the Most High here should refer to Jehovah (Yahweh). This word H5945 appears 53 times in total. The Psalm clearly explains the meaning here, “For the LORD (Yahweh, H3068) Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth.”(Psalm 47:2)
With objective seeing, we can realize the error of subjective view! We see that Satan knows that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The scripture clearly says, “Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!””(Mark 3:11) Even the unclean spirits know this, so how can Satan not know it? Satan knows that the created cannot surpass the Creator God, but he has no concept of the Trinity. It is so arrogant, how could it want to be equal to the son of a lesser god in his opinion? Satan cannot surpass God, but he must at least be equal to God! Regarding the fact that he did not have the concept of the Trinity, if he had known that Jesus Christ was one of the Trinity, he would not have intervened in the crucifixion of Jesus as evidenced by the scripture, “And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.”(Luke 22:3)
Returning to the scriptures here, “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;…”(Isaiah 14:13), we see that Satan fell thoroughly. He wasn’t driven because as soon as he had proud thoughts, but after he actually acted disobedient to God many times because the past tense is used, so its proud thoughts do precede actions.
We will see that this is the principle of God’s work. To see this, let us take a look before the coming of the new heaven and the new earth, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.(Revelation 20:11-13) The word ‘books’ is used here, which is plural. The Bible does not clearly say what these books are. For example, are there any book that records bad thoughts such as pride? Some people may guess the answer like this, but the Bible doesn’t explicitly mention anything like this, so there is no point in guessing. In fact, there is no need to guess at all. But we will definitely be judged according to our actions. Wasn’t Satan also driven out because of his actions not just his thoughts? This act refers to an act of faith, proceeding from life. Jesus made it very clear, “…I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”(John 10:10)
There are”…angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.”(Jude 1:6) Some fallen angels have been detained until the judgment of the great day because they disobeyed God and did not abide by their duties. In short, in the previous world, sin also arose from disobedience to God. We have also seen that angels were created with true free will, and they could choose to obey God or not. Some people may ask at this time, why did God leave Satan behind? The book of Psalm says very clearly, “From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.”(Psalm 8:2) At the time of creation, man’s power was a little smaller than that of angels (see Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:7). For example, look at this verse, “While he (the messenger) was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.””(Job 1:16) The messenger thought that It was God who did it. If you read the book of Job, you will know that it is the work of Satan. Therefore, Satan can bring down fire from heaven, but we cannot. Satan is a fallen angel, and his power is inherently stronger than that of humans. In comparison, don’t infants and nursing babes refer to humans? But some people will willingly sacrifice themselves and even their lives for the Lord. What else does Satan can say?
Some may ask, is jealousy disobeying God? The book of Psalm explicitly says, “Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb. Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.”(Psalm 37:1-3) How can jealousy be obedience to God! One of the points of reading the Bible is to read some of God’s rules for doing things. The book of Psalm makes this point very clear, “He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.”(Psalm 103:7) Some people may have other questions. If I go into detail one by one, there won’t be enough time!
Finally, let’s talk about some people who say that death comes because of God’s judgment. No, because “Then the LORD God said, “…and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” …So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”(Genesis 3:22-24) So even though Adam sinned and disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he could still eat from the tree of life. At that time, all God could do was to guard the way to the tree of life and prevent him from having this opportunity. Didn’t we share before in Hebrews 2:14-15 that the one who has the power of death is the devil? So death is also one of the powers of sin, as the scripture says, “For the wages of sin is death, …”(Romans 6:23) “We know that…the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (Satan).”(1 John 5:19) But even so, God still retains His absolute sovereignty forever. This is just like what was said at the beginning of the book of Job. Satan cannot act beyond the scope of God’s permission. When God don’t allow us to die, we will live.
2. The consistency of the Bible means that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent
The consistency of the Bible means that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent. It does not refer to the consistency in words. If it were the words, we would see obvious contradictions. When we see such contradictions, what we should ask is: from the obvious contradiction in the words from God’s inspiration, what exactly is it trying to tell us through this contradiction?
Give an example with an obvious contradiction to illustrate this point. After Jesus was baptized, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil (Satan) (see Matthew 4:1, Luke 4:1, Mark 1:12). This matter is found in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, which record it in great detail. According to Luke 4:1-13, three incidents were mentioned in which Jesus was tempted. In short, they are: (1) commanding the stone to become bread; (2) showing Him all the kingdoms of the world; (3) leading Him to the top of the temple in Jerusalem. It is also said, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.”(Luke 4:13) If we look at Matthew 4:1-10, there is a different order: (1), (3), (2). There is an obvious contradiction here. What is God trying to tell us through this contradiction?
First, what we notice is that temptations are not just about these three things, but these three things are particularly prominent. They are recorded in both Gospels, so this different order will make us pay special attention to temptations not just these three things.
Second, we will notice that the devil only left Jesus “temporarily”. He will still be tempted in the future. Therefore, Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”(Hebrews 4:15) Obviously, Jesus still suffered many temptations in the future. See how consistent the Bible is on this point! This is an example of what God tells us through the Bible to be consistent. Regarding His lack of sin, Peter also made it very clear, “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.”(1 Peter 2:22)
Third, the Gospel of Luke says, “it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”(Luke 1:3-4) We see that the order mentioned here does not refer to the order of events. If it did, there would be an obvious contradiction like the above. Therefore, the order here refers to the order of things. The three Gospels all agree that the temptation occurred after Jesus was baptized.
3. There is a big difference between looking at things from a human perspective and looking at things from a divine perspective.
Contrary to the perspective of God, it is from the perspective of human beings. If it is from a person’s perspective, there will be many different definitions. For example, on page 55, it says, “The definition of sin in other scriptures in the Bible.” The scripture quoted is: “…sin is lawlessness.”(1 John 3:4) and “All unrighteousness is sin, …”(1 John 5:17) For the former, the law is given by God, and disobeying the law is of course disobedience to God, which is sin. But you will also find no scripture that says sin is a violation of the law, nor can it prove that this statement is correct. Actually, from the viewpoint of Jews, Jesus didn’t follow the time of Sabbath and thus was a violation of the law. But He kept the true meaning of Sabbath and said clearly, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”(Matthew 12:8) Was Jesus sinful? Absolutely not. In short, we cannot prove sufficient and necessary conditions, so we cannot define “sin” as a violation of the law.
Regarding the latter, the New Testament makes it very clear, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”(James 1:17) Doing unrighteous things is of course disobedience to God and is naturally a sin. But an unbeliever can do righteous things but is still sinful because “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18) We cannot define “sin” as anything unrighteous.
Therefore, when reading the Bible, you cannot draw equal signs casually. The Bible often talks about a statement that is true in one direction instead of saying that it is true in both directions. Drawing equal signs casually will create the God that is not what the Bible says, but he himself doesn’t know about it! We should really note that the Bible says very clearly, ““The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”(Jeremiah 17:9) We can even deceive ourselves! In fact, you should do the same when listening to others. You can’t draw equal signs casually. Otherwise, sometimes you will hear things that others didn’t say, which will lead to arguments.
Some people may say that we are human beings, and of course we see things from a human perspective. But because the Bible is inspired by God, as long as we don’t forcefully interpret the Bible as Peter said in 2 Peter 3:15-16, aren’t we seeing things from God’s perspective? Jesus said, “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31) Except for Jesus, who can say that he has obeyed God throughout his life before he has been conformed to the image of Jesus? If we can correctly understand the definition of sin in the Bible as disobedience to God, we will understand why the Bible says, “…all have sinned.”(Romans 3:23a) Of course, committing sin means “…fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23b)
We know that murder and arson are certainly sins, and it is clear that they disobey God. The book of Leviticus makes it very clear, “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.”(Leviticus 19:11) In our experience, haven’t we seen that children can learn to lie without being taught by others? Has a person who has never committed murder or arson never lied and disobeyed God? The sin mentioned in the Bible refers to disobedience to God, so it is said that everyone in the world has sinned. Therefore, when preaching, it should not be difficult at all to tell non-Christians that everyone in the world has sinned. The real difficulty is that people have free will and can choose whether or not to believe the Bible? Therefore, if a person does not believe, in faith, that the Bible is inspired by God, and because of faith we can use logic based on the words of the Bible. If one only uses pure logic, the conclusion will be agnostic and does not know whether God exists or not. In fact, even Christians can choose whether or not to discount the words of the Bible. If one indeed believe that the Bible is inspired by God and is right, how can that person discount what the Bible says? That person should know that he just hasn’t experienced the truth since he thinks that it’s inconsistent with the Bible!
Regarding discounting the words of the Bible, let’s look at an example where both people were wrong. Romans says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”(Romans 8:29) Obviously, if you do not discount the words of the Bible, you will accept that there is both foreknowledge and predestination, and you will realize that these are two sides of the same coin, just like a coin with a head and a tail, but it is still the same coin. Martin Luther believed that there was only foreknowledge, while Calvin believed that there was only predestination. In other words, they both discounted this scripture and fell down on this point! Especially people think that they are both spiritual and should not be wrong, so to this day there are still people arguing about which one is right, but in fact both of them are wrong on this point! We can’t blame them. They have never experienced a situation where there is both foreknowledge and predestination. They only know that it is either foreknowledge or predestination. But modern people have experienced similar situations, so how can they discount the words of the Bible on this? For an example, please refer to “1005 Only one Bible.” Those who are interested in this short article can go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life.”
Let’s look at a biblical example of the impact of mistakes made by a person who is considered spiritual. We know that Solomon built the temple, so he should have been a very spiritual man at that time, but “…when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.”(1 Kings 11:4-8) Let’s see when these high places were cleared away? It was when Josiah was clearing out the high places. As the scripture says, “The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king (Josiah) defiled. He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.”(2 Kings 23:13-14) At that time, the kingdom of Judah was almost destroyed! It can be seen how far-reaching the impact will be.
Finally, let’s look at a related fact mentioned by Paul, which is, “If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.”(1 Corinthians 8:2) This is one of those scriptures that can be experienced. If God wants it, He will create the environment for us to have such an experience. Generally speaking, people often like to be teachers and teach others, so the Bible says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”(James 3:1) Especially because we often think we know it, but later find out that we didn’t know it at the time. We should really be humble. Jesus said, “…I am gentle and humble in heart, …”(Matthew 11: 29) How can one be conformed to the image of Jesus without humility? It’s easy to know but not easy to do. It was only after Job suffered that he realized his own righteousness and could say, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”(Job 42:5-6) So Jesus would say to the crowds and his disciples: “…If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”(Mark 8:34) But as the scripture says, “…In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33) Take Job as an example, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,”(Job 38:1) When necessary, the Triune God Himself will absolutely work to fulfill the promises of Jesus.
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
(You can get all articles in “https://a-christian-voice.com/” under “On spiritual understanding about life.”)
aChristianVoice 一個基督徒的聲音 